Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / The city in Nation-Building Projects: Soviet Autonomy in Siberia and Sovereign Kazakhstan

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2022 15 (2)
Authors
Alekseenko, Aleksandr N.; Aubakirova, Zhanna S.; Dyatlov, Viktor I.
Contact information
Alekseenko, Aleksandr N.: Sarsen Amanzholov East Kazakhstan University Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan; ORCID: 0000-0002-1169-412X; Aubakirova, Zhanna S.: Sarsen Amanzholov East Kazakhstan University Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan; ORCID: 0000-0003-1179-5518; Dyatlov, Viktor I.: Irkutsk State University Irkutsk, Russian Federation; ; ORCID: 0000-0003-3584-6009
Keywords
nation-building; project; city; capital of autonomy; Ulan-Ude; Ust-Kamenogorsk; rural migrants; ethnicization of urban space
Abstract

The most important part of the Soviet socialist transformation, and after the collapse of the USSR, of its sovereign heirs, are nation-building projects. With huge, essential differences, they are brought together by a genetic connection with the Soviet past, the tools of social engineering and the format of state projects, the ethnic basis for understanding the nation being formed. Different in time and implemented by different actors, the Soviet and sovereign projects have similar roles of cities as a key instrument for the production of the nation. The purpose of the article is to compare the role of provincial cities in two projects carried out by the central authorities. For the Soviet era – the regional town of Verkhneudinsk, appointed to be the capital of Soviet Buryatia. On the example of Ust-Kamenogorsk in sovereign Kazakhstan – the implementation of the project of forming a nation-state in one of the regions of the country is considered. Different mission sources, different times and contexts – but a common situation where an ethnically and culturally different city must transform patriarchal traditionalist rural societies into modern nations, if using the well-known metaphor of the transformation of «peasants into French». Receiving new functions from the authorities, changing society, cities themselves are radically changing both in terms of the composition of the population and the nature of relationships in the urban community. They attract the «titular» rural population and form communities of a new type – «urban Buryats» and «urban Kazakhs». Their urban culture is created as a result of a complex synthesis of Russian and their own language and culture within the rigid framework of the urban economy, social structure, and lifestyle. New waves of rural migrants bring with them elements of traditionalism and a trend towards ruralization. There is a dynamic, often conflicting interaction between Russians, titular townspeople and newcomers – rural migrants within the framework set by the city and the policy of the authorities

Pages
204–219
DOI
10.17516/1997-1370-0905
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/145355

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